Search

These are some photos of our garden. Koha and her cousin and Nanny planted some fruit a while ago and they are just starting to grow food. This makes me smile. I think we’ll be enjoying these this summer!

Today we were playing outside in the garden, inspecting all the different flowers. Koha was very interested in which flowers were edible. The rule at our house is that no plants are edible, unless you ask Mumma and she says it is edible, but you must always check, even when you’re sure you’ve eaten it before.

One plant that Koha discovered could be edible, was lavender. She was very keen to have a taste of this plant, but it needed to be prepared in a certain kind of way – either as a tea or in some baking. She asked so politely whether she could make some lavender cookies, so, we made some!

These treats are not healthy, but they are delicious. And sometimes its better to explore and try new foods, especially ones that grow outside, then it is to worry too much.

simply mix the chopped lavender flower into the batter

We picked some lavender, and took it inside. Inside, we made up some cookie dough, using a standard Edmond’s basic biscuit recipe, and then added the chopped up lavender flowers (no stems or leaves). The recipe was quick and easy and it only took 12 minutes to bake in the oven. The cookies were large and the flavour of the lavender was just perfect. We ate two each, with tall glasses of cold milk. It was such a treat, and so exciting to eat something from the garden.

By the way, if you live in New Zealand, you should own an Edmond’s Recipe Book. It’s full of basic and easy recipes and is great for those who are just starting out with baking and cooking. A lot of the recipes are easily modified to fit your diet goals too – for example with this recipe you could modify it by replacing the flour with a healthier flour, and replacing the sugar with a substitute, and substituting half the butter with applesauce. We didn’t do that today, though.

We had this as a treat today: Greek yoghurt, with frozen blueberries and sliced bananas. It’s simple and delicious. I like adding frozen berries because the berries make the yoghurt cold and thick, which makes me think of ice cream. I like how Greek yoghurt is slightly sour, but if you aren’t a big fan you can counter-act the sourness with some honey, maple syrup, or sprinkled stevia. Mmm… Delicious…

Often when people want to lose weight or get in shape, they tell themselves they’ll go on a healthy diet. While on this healthy diet, they’ll stay away from the yummy stuff and eat things that will get them closer to their goal. And you know what happens to these dieters? Eventually, they get sick of it and they go back to junk foods.

But why associate healthy eating with punishment? That’s silly. What are you teaching your kids when you do that?

Recently I was watching a video on youtube by www.flylady.net where she said the reason most of us don’t like doing chores is because when we were kids we were given chores as a punishment. We have to overcome that if we are going to get into routines which keep our home operating in a way which supports us and makes us happy. I think that applies to healthy eating too. We have to overcome messages of desserts as “treats” and vegetables as “taxes”. Vegetables can be treats.

It’s actually more logical to view healthy eating as a treat you give yourself. Healthy foods are varied and delicious. They give you more energy and vitality. They improve your mood and support you to be your best. We need to be excited about healthy eating and home cooking, we need to look forward to making dinners with fresh ingredients. By doing that, we enable our long term diet success, and also the long term diet success of our children.

Koha and I invented this drink a while ago. It is made from three simple ingredients: water, frozen strawberries, and stevia (to taste). All you do is put them in the blender and blend away. We don’t measure out out ingredients precisely, but usually fill the blender with at least a quarter full with strawberries, to make it lovely and thick.

Eating healthy is a long term commitment, one that is harder to stick to when you deny yourself and your family the occasional treat. It is good, and it is healthy, to celebrate with food. Sometimes that calls for cake.

Personally, I think cake is more special when it is baked at home. The whole process of baking is enjoyable. Mixing and measuring, licking the spoon, the anticipation while the cake rises in the oven, the process of frosting… It’s all good. It’s all positive. It’s all something that makes the day extra special.

When baking at home, I use a number of tricks which both reduce the total calories and increase the nutritional density of the cake. While it’s okay to have treats occasionally, if there’s no difference in taste between a healthier option and a standard option, I will always go for the healthier option.

My tricks include:

Dividing the total amount of required butter or oil in 3, then using 1/3 oil or butter with a top up for the other 2/3 of apple sauce.

Categories

Meta

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Advertisements

Our Cooking Show & Blog

The stars of this cooking show are....

* Natalie! The Mum! She knows a little bit about eating healthily and is always looking for new recipes to try at home.

* Koha! The daughter! She is outgoing and looooves to cook. Koha has been interested in cooking ever since she was a baby. Now she is 4 and a bit of a wee expert.

This Blog:

Here you will find a whole heap of recipes, videos of our cooking show, and tonnes of ideas on how to cook at home, how to include children in cooking, how to foster an interest in cooking, how to cook healthily, and how to make delicious food while on a budget.